Combination car and train-pipe coupling.



PATBNTED DEG. 10, 1907.

J. W. EARTH. COMBINATION GAB ANDTRAIN PIPE 000mm.

APPLICATION FILED JAN. 19. 1907.

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v INVENTOR- gmfM/a/ 0% my WITNESSES- T No. 873,288. V PA-TBNTED DEC. 10,1907.

J. W. BARI'H COMBINATION CAR AND TRAIN PIPE COUPLING. APPLICATION FILEDJAN.19, 1907.

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UNITED STATES [PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN W. BARTH, OF PITTSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA.

. COMBINATION CAR AND TRAIN-PIPE COUPLIFTG.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 1 0, 1 907.

Application filedl-Tan uary 19, 1907. Serial No. 353.127.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, JOHN W. BAR-TH," a resident of Pittsburg, in thecounty of Allegheny and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new anduseful Improvement in Combination Car and Train-Pipe Couplers; and I dohereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact descriptionthereof.

This invention relates to combined automatic train pipe and carcouplings.

'. The object 18 to provide for the automatic coupling not only of thecars but also of the train pipes on sharp'curves. v

Automatic car couplers are nowin general use, and in recent years therehas also been provided coupling heads for the air, steam and signaltrain pipes which are so constructed that they will automatically come 1together and couple when the cars are pushed will not. interlock whenthe cars are pushed together. It has, however, been proposed to jmakethe train pipe couplings laterally movable on the car body and connectthe "same to the truck so that on curves the couplings will partake ofthe position of the truck and not of the car body. As the couplings arethereby held fairly close to the center line of the track coupling oncurves is greatly facilitated.

The present invention relates to train pipe coupling heads so suspendedor mounted that they can move laterally on the car body,

and being. connected to the truck so that on curves said coupling-headsmove with the truck and are held fairlyclose to the'center of the track,thereby facilitating the coupling of the train pipesion curves;

The invention consists in mounting the draft mechanism so asto have freeflateral movement with. reference. to the. .car body and connectin' the.amers the truck so as to be centered y the latten'and suspending bolster3 of the truck 4;

the train, pipe coupling heads from draft mechanism so mounted.

The invention also consists in so connecting the train pipe couplinghead to the pivot pln offthe car coupler as to prevent the train pipecoupling head falling onto the track in case the pivot pin should break;and also providing 'means which will indicate to the inspector that thepivot pin has broken;

.lnthe accompanying drawin s, Figure 1 is a plan view showing the ends 0two car underframes with my invention applied there to; Fig. 2 is avertical section taken substantially on the longitudinal center ofthecars Fig. 3 is a transverse section taken immediately in front of thedraw bar and supplying bracket;

Fig. 4 is a vertical sectionshowlng a portion 1 of Fig. 2 on an enlargedscale; Big. 5 'is an enlarged side view of the car coupler head and Fig.6 is a front view of the samet The car underfr'ames are shown at 1, and

these will be provided with the usual body bolster 2 having a centerlate resting upon 0th the car body and truck may be of any preferredconstruction.

The car couplers themselves may be of any suitable automatic type, thoseshown at 5 being the standard Master Car Builders form, and are so wellknown that detailed descrip tion thereofis unnecessary. These couplersare connected to any suitable draft and buffing rigging indicateddiagrammaticallyby the draw bar 6. Thelatter instead of being mountedbetween draft timbers, as is' generally done, is pivotally connected tothe car'body so as to swing freely laterally thereof. As shown inv the.drawings the draft -mechanism is connected by a vertical pivot 7 to thebody bolster of the car, but obvlously' it may 'be pivoted to any othersuitable portion; of the car body. The beamsS for supportin the end ofthejcar body or platform and w iich correspond to the: usual draftshown, inlor' or to allow thedraft mec ism to swing freel "The draftmechanism ,beams,-ares' read "or splayed outwardly as v 'of' thetw'oends 0 "a car are independent of each other; In orderto hold' said draftthe'truck oneurves. flhe'sp'ecific connecmechanismsu stimtially central.of thetrack 'it is connects by an suitable means to the: truck so as toparts o of the movement of r tion shown comprises a yoke 9 embracing thedraft mechanism and provided with arms. which are suitably connected toany convenient portion of the truck. Preferably .these arms-will beconnected to the truck by means of horizontal ivots, as shown at 11, soas to allow for re ative vertical movement between the car body andtruck. Preferably movement in the between the yoke and. sides of thedraft mechanism. Any lother suitable connection able form cap betweenthe draft mechanism and the truck will answer my purpose equally aswell. The train pipe couplings may also be ofany suit-- able of couplingautomatically when the cars are pushed together. In the drawings I haveshown-a standardif'orm' of coupling head 14, the samebeing provided withsloping faces, Wings or arms whichguide .the sections together when thecars are pushed together. hesecoupling heads have connected thereto"hose sections 15 which in turn are connected to the train pipes of thecars. As many hose sections Wlll be connected'to the heads as there aretrain pipes service to be coupled; In passenger practice there .Willgenerally'be three such pipes, one for 'the air brakes, another forthesteam, and

another for the signaling system. For freight generally only one pipe isnecessary; but for as g the Goodwin dump cars, in which the dumpingmechanism is operated by fluid pressure, additional pipes maybecomenecessary. The trainpipes 16 preferably end just outside of the bodybolster and are flexibly connected to pipe sections 17 mounted to swingwith the draw bar andouter ends connected to the coupling. heads by thehose sections 15. In the drawings the pipe sections 17 are shown mountedon the bottom of the draft mechanism and connected to the train pipes 16by flexible pipe couplers 18. This constitutes inefiect a sectional orflexible train pipe andpermits of the'use of onlyshort hose sections 15even with a draft mechanism which swings later-'1 ally through a largeare.

I The train pipe coupling heads 14 will be connected to the truck by anysuitable mechi anism so as to partake of the movement of said'truoks oncurves. This connection may be independent of the connection of thedraft.

mechanism tothe truck. Preferably, however, and for simplicity, thetrain pipe cou ling members are secured to the draft mec v .amsm so asto makeunnecessary an addi- -t1onal connection to the truck. This isaccomplished by securing the rear end of the train pipe coupler memberto suitable hangers 20 connected to a bracket 21 on the carcoupler ordrafting mechanism. The for ward end of, the train embraces the draftinechotherwisebe the case.

. that when the pin 24 breaks' the reaches the lower end of downwardmovement some special characters of' cars, suchhaving theirand the partscan be coupgerwill lie practically centrally of the, nomatter what thecurvature of the center of thetrack and pipe coupler head is suspendedby achain 22 from a hook 23 connected to the lower end of the knucklepivot pin 24 of the car coupler 5. The hook 23 is connected to the pin24 by means of a trans- Verse pin 25 whose ends project into or throughopenings 26 in the coupler head 5. As .aconse uence, even ifthe pin 5should break, the hook 23 and train pipe coupler head cannot fallontothe track as would Obviously, in place of this transverse pinsuitable projections of other formmight be provided on the hook 23.

.In order to make detection of a broken pivot ,pin 24 easy theconstruction is such the pin 24 breaks itwill permit the train p'pecoupler head to drop somewhat, thus indicating to the inspector that thein is broken. This is provided for-by making the openings 26 in the formof vertical slots, as shown in Fig. 5, so that in case train pipecoupling projection or pin 25 the slots. Further of the train pipecoupling head is then arrested but the position of the head will be suchas to inform .the inspector at a lance that the pivot pin is broken. Attie same time the train pipe coupler head is prevented from falling ontothe track and possibly causing derailment or other'serious accident.

The combined draft gear and train pipe coupler head is of considerableweight and especially'on passenger cars where the draw bar must be verylong. Said combined parts therefore offer considerable resistance headwill drop until the to lateral movement. The draw bar is su ported onthe horizontal bracket 27 and in order to relieve the friction of theheavy draft mechanism thereon, I provide suitable friction reducingdevices, such as the rollers 28 between the bracket and the draw bar.These rollers may be su able way but preferab y are mounted beported inany suita tween the brackets .29 on the draw bar. Preferably theserollers are slightly conical,

as shown, with the small ends pointing toward the ivot 7 of the draftgear. I When t e car moves-on a curve, the truck will swivel withreference to the car body,

thus through :the connections described swinging the car cou ler anddraft mechanism laterally with re erence to the car body,

s'oproportioned that the trac track may be. The train 'plipe couplingcurves both the car coupler and train pi e.

coupler headswillibe substantially in t e of the angle thatthe'carbodiesmay ear to entirely irres ective certainty.

each other. i' The result is that both the car couplers and train pipeswill interlock with The details of construction ma widely withoutdeparting from t my'invention. Any suitable form 0 automatic car couplerand any suitable form of automatic train pipe coupling heads are adaptedfor my purpose, and the connections between these and the truck may alsobe of any suitable form, the essential being that these couplers shallmove with thetruck rather than with the car body.

- friction What I plaim is: 1. In arailway car, the combination of adraft gear mounted to swingradially and having a guiding connectionwith; the car truck, an automatic pipe couplin head carried by saiddraft gear, and anti- 'ction devices supp'orting said draft gear.

' 2. In arailway car, the'combinatiori of a draft gear mounted to swingradially and having a lguiding connection with the car truck, an 11carried by said draft gear, a bracket on which said draft gear moveslaterally, and an antidevice between .said draft gear and bracket.

3. In a railway car, the draft gear mounted to swing radially and havinga guiding connection withthe car truck, a bracket onwhich said draftgear is sup orted, and anti-friction rollers between .sai bracket anddraft gear.

4. In a railway 'car, the combination of a draft gear mounted toswing-radially and I havinga guiding connection with the cartruck, abracket on which said draft ear moves laterally, and anti-friction r0lers mounted on the lower face of said draft gear I p and supporting the,latter .on, the bracket,

In a railway car, the combination ofa draft gear mounted to swingradially and having a guiding connection with the car truck, anautomatic train pi e coupling head carried by said draft gear, a racket.on-which v tomatic'train pipe coupling head said dra ft gear moveslaterally, and anti-friction rollers between said draft gear 'and'bracket.

be varied 6. In a railway car, thecombination of an knuckle, a'pivot pmconnecting said knuckle when the p vot pin breaks and serving as anindicator to show that the pivot pin .is

broken. u v v V 8. In a railway car, the combination of an automaticcoupler provided with a'swinging knuckle, a pivot pin connecting saidlmuckle to the coupler head, an automatic train pipe coupling membersuspended fromthe lower end of said pivot pin, and laterally rejecting vportions connected to said suspen mg memcombination of aer and arrangedto'have a limited vertical movement with reference to the car coupler.9. In a railway car, the combination of an ingknuckle, apivot pin,connecting said knuckle to the coupler head, said coupler of said'pivotpin by a transverse member head and a train pipe coupling memberconnected to said suspending member.

J QHN W.

In testimony whereof, I' he said BART-H have hereunto set my hand. IJOHN W. EARTH;

A Witnesses; 1

Ronnnr- C. To'r'rnn,

J. R. KELLER.

automatic car coupler provided with a swingprojecting into vert calslots in the coupler 56 e s irit of automatic couplerprovid'ed'with aswinging I to thecoupler head, an automatic tram-pipe head beingprovided with vertical slots, asuspending member connected to the lowerend'

